Benjamin Dwyer

Benjamin Dwyer’s music is forged from an intensive amalgamation of technical, improvisatory and interpretative elements. Experienced at the intersection of performance, gesture and compositional praxis, his music is further enriched through its deep immersion in ritual and symbol. His works have been performed worldwide by renowned musicians and ensembles. As a classical guitarist and a major exponent of contemporary music and free jazz, Dwyer performs worldwide, appearing as soloist with all the Irish orchestras, the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic (Germany), the Santos Symphony Orchestra (Brazil), VOX21, the Callino Quartet (UK), the Vogler String Quartet (Germany) and Barry Guy’s Blue Shroud Band. In the past decade Dwyer has completed a triptych of major works that deal with issues of feminism, (post)colonialism, symbol and ritual: Scenes from Crow, after Ted Hughes’s Crow sequence, Umbilical, written for Maya Homburger, Barry Guy and David Adams, which is a nine-movement version of Oedipus Rex. (both on Diatribe Records), and SacrumProfanum, inspired by the enigmatic sheela-na-gigs – ancient carvings of female figures that prominently expose the vulva. Other major compositions and performances include: Twelve Études for guitar (Gamelan Records) has been described by Fabio Zanon as the ‘summation of an entire guitar epoch’, and imagines obesae et aspectui ingratae, which was written for violist Garth Knox, a recording of which appears alongside a limited edition lithograph publication of the score by New Dublin Press. The Fidelio Trio premières Nocturnal at King’s Place London this year.. Dwyer is an elected member of Aosdána, the Irish government-sponsored academy of creative artists that honours those whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, London (ARAM), an honour bestowed upon those deemed to have made 'a significant contribution to the music profession'. Benjamin Dwyer is Professor of Music at Middlesex University's School of Media and Performing Arts